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Curry's return to sidelines adds spice to one of the WVC's top rivalries

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The first time George Curry coached against Wyoming Valley West, he was a 21-year-old kid from Larksville chasing his dream of being a high school football coach.

He had no idea what the rivalry would become - one of the most intense match-ups the Wyoming Valley Conference has to offer.

The conference has some big rivalry games. Pittston Area and Wyoming Area comes to mind. GAR and Meyers have been playing since 1932 and Dallas and Lake-Lehman play for the Old Shoe.

Those rivalries are separated by a river or school district boundaries.

But Berwick vs. Valley West - or Valley West vs. Berwick, if you prefer - is a different rivalry.

Route 11 is what separates the two programs, but the presence of Curry is what turns the game up a notch.

Emotions have a tendency to be high and players from both sides understand what it's all about. If they don't, they have a pretty good idea by the time practice is over the Monday of game week.

"You go back to the 70s when we played them and (Jim) Fennell was coaching," Curry said. "The fact that I'm from Larksville and I knew all those guys. I know all the families. Those kids playing for Valley West now, their grandfathers are my age.

"It's been a good game over the years. I don't think it's ever going to change. It probably won't change even after I'm long gone."

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Curry's history with Valley West runs deep. He began his career at Lake-Lehman and won all three meetings against the Spartans.

When Curry stepped down as the Berwick head coach in 2005, he became the head coach at Valley West and remained with the Spartans through the 2008 season.

After leaving Valley West, Curry took a job working as a television analyst and color commentator on the radio.

He returned to Berwick in June after Gary Campbell resigned to return to his home state of Massachusetts. Curry's all-time record at Berwick coming into tonight's game is 390-83-5.

But the all-time winningest coach in Pennsylvania won't be thinking about bringing his old new team back to play the former school he coached at.

"I don't look at any of that. It's the media that makes it a big deal," Curry said. "When I'm walking out on the field, that's the last thing I'm thinking of. I don't hear the crowd or see the people. I'm thinking about that first play."

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The first game between the two schools was played in 1967 and won by Valley West, 31-6. The teams played off and on throughout the 1970s. Then in 1985, Berwick and Valley West began to play on a yearly basis.

"I think it has always been a big game for a long time, not just because of how much success coach Curry has had in his career but because he also has ties and grew up in the Wyoming Valley West community," Valley West coach Pat Keating said. "That is what makes this rivalry go and has for years. It escalated when he stepped down from Berwick and became the head coach here. That put a completely different spin on this whole thing. Now he leaves here and comes back to Berwick. There is going to be a lot of people from the community that have ties to him. That makes this whole thing tick."

Just like all rivalries, there have been some good games and some bad ones. Berwick's longest winning streak in the series is 10 games from 1987-1996. Valley West's longest winning streak is currently three, having won the last three meetings between the two teams.

Perhaps the most intense game in the series came in 1997 when Valley West won 3-0 on a field goal in overtime by Matt McCormick.

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Keating, a 1996 Valley West grad, has experienced the rivalry from both ends, having played in it and coached in it.

From both perspectives, he said there is no better road trip in the conference than the one to Crispin Field.

"When I played, they were in their run of consecutive state titles," Keating said. "My last year we had them 15-15 and they pulled away from us in the fourth quarter. It's as good an atmosphere in high school football as there is in Berwick. The people and community are very passionate about their football."

For one year, Keating worked as an assistant under Curry at Valley West and said it was a valuable experience.

"If you pay attention, and I did, you will learn a lot," Keating said. "Just from both sides of the ball, the strategic standpoint of it all. Just watching all the different things he would do and why he would do them. Just to be able to watch how he would get his kids to understand how to do that many things and be complex, but keep it simplified for the kids. One of the things you really take in on a Friday night is seeing how his mind works and the different adjustments he makes throughout the game. That was unique."

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